The Watergate Scandal played a big role in the Presidency of Richard Nixon in the 1970’s. When Nixon got elected for President in 1968, nobody suspected a colossal scandal was to come. Although, that was clearly inevitable. It all started when Nixon and his officials illicitly entered the Watergate Complex and stole tapes, which contained secret conversations. Later on, the FBI found that the evidence came right back to Nixon. He went to court and was asked to hand over the recordings. Nixon denied he had the tapes but after months of denial he gave in and turned in the film. Quickly after, he resigned the Presidency. The cartoon above shows Nixon giving a speech by a podium. Instead of the presidential seal, there is a film symbol displaying the stolen films. There is also an arrow shot into his back that states “Memo from vice-president elect: hand over Watergate tapes”. It is as if they are reminding him to hand over the tapes and he is taking his time and waving it off. The artist also gave Richard a long nose portraying his denial about the tapes in court. Overall, the cartoon sums up Nixon’s last months of Presidency.
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This political cartoon is depicting President Richard Nixon. In his bid for the election for Presidency in 1968, he says that he has a secret plan to end the Vietnam War. He knew how much resentment the American’s had for the abundance of troops sent into Vietnam (and dying). During his first term, he did not end the war, like he said he would do. When he was running for re-election four years later, not only had the war not come to an end, it was actually escalating and the casualties of American troops were rising.
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At the beginning of the war, Spring of 1965, many Americans had supported the military effort in Vietnam. As the war dragged on though, the public support began to drop. Vietnam was the first “television war”, which meant every night there was footage of combat appearing on the news. There was a huge credibility gap with the televised scenes. What was really going on, and how bad the war was in reality, was not shown on TV for Americans to see. This is what caused the credibility gap, which is the lack of trust, in this case America had developed a lack of trust with the Johnson Administration. This political cartoon is depicting the “attempted censorship” or what was “cut out”, leaving Americans unaware of the reality of war in Vietnam.
meghanhannahclaire 